The impact of AI and shortcuts on creativity

AI Questions spark an artistic exploration

I am an artist. What impact will artificial intelligence have on me and my art practice? What becomes of creative self expression in the fast developing world of AI ? How does AI-produced art relate to the “I” of the artist. Big questions that I am exploring using the three letters a, i & m.
The AIM of communicating anything of any depth about Artificial Intelligence using simple visual devices is an ambitious or possibly absurd undertaking. Why do it? I’m also exploring the use of shortcuts and signs in written communication. These have an impact on how we create, how we use our brains, and how we connect to each other.

Shorthand communication forms

 Single letters of the alphabet regularly replace words to impart meaning. Today acronyms, initialisms and abbreviations litter our lexicon, spurred on by SMS, which is itself an initialism for Short Messaging Services. 

Abbreviations, a contemporary form of shorthand, are great for spinning out quick text messages. The downside is that, like emojis, they can be ambiguous or convey totally different meanings – consider the acronym LoL. Does it mean Lots of Love or Lots of Laughs? 

Loss of creator-audience relationship

While abbreviation provides convenience, it can detract from the richness of our written language. There is a certain kind of joy and effort required to find just the right word to express something. This is what gives a writer satisfaction, and the reader a sense of appreciation of the author. It is a considered human thought process.
The same principle applies in the visual arts. In creating an artwork, an artist makes a myriad of decisions. They are different types of decisions; global decisions, conceptual decisions, planning decisions, minute-by-minute adjustment decisions.
These decisions require an extraordinary level of skill and brainpower across range of disparate areas; decisions about the materials used, subject matter, style, colour and composition. Not all viewers will be aware of the complexity of the creative process. Most will appreciate the an artwork is a human endeavour.

Reducing thought process, subsuming thought processes

This series of postcards is minimalist art, generated on the computer. It is rather like SMS writing. The computer simplifies the process and takes away a lot of the brainwork and tedium. There’s a shift of the skills required to make the art. But there is still human agency.

Will AI evolve to point where it subsumes creative human agency?   Am I human? is an existential question. I am human is an existential statement, not just for artists but for the whole of humanity. 

These images ask you to interpret the shorthand with serious intent. I hope that they prompt you to pause and consider the big I am existential questions in connection with AI.